The last episode of “Below Deck Sailing Yacht” Season 5 ended with another boat drifting dangerously close to Parsifal III. The situation looked so dire that Gary King immediately stopped flirting with stew Danni Warren to do damage control.
Danni wakes Captain Glenn Shephard and deckhand Emma Crouch to help out. Meanwhile, Keith Allen is coming back with the charter guests on the tender and they’re about to run into a disaster.
Emma is wearing shorts and a sweatshirt so Gary tells her to go change into her uniform. She takes her sweet time and Glenn asks where the heck she is and the cameras cut to her drinking water in her cabin.
Keith gets close and Gary asks him to drive the tender up to the boat and get their attention. He knocks on the windows and finally, a shirtless man comes up. “Smells like pot,” a guest notes. The crisis is averted and thankfully, no boats crash.
Emma Crouch’s end is near
Emma continues to feel down on herself because she simply sucks as a deckhand. Daisy gives her advice and tells her to just keep working at getting stronger. “Ask questions. Like, I know from my department, that’s what I want,” she says. “Jump up. Help. Do something.”
“Mmhmmm,” Emma says nonchalantly. On deck, she’s struggling to get it together and Gary points out that she hung the flag incorrectly. “You want the flag to be a the top, not half-mast. No one’s dead.”
In the bridge, Glenn tells Gary, “We had a lot of close calls last night. It’s a struggle with the people that we have to stay properly manned, right?” He adds, “She doesn’t seem keen to be here.”
Gary wonders what would happen if Emma was on night duty and a near-catastrophe happens again.
“No, forget it, we can’t,” Glenn answers. Gary tells Glenn that he’s been trying to teach Emma how to drive the tender but she’s just not getting it.
Outside on the deck, Emma knows Gary and Glenn are talking about her. “Honestly, I think he’s just going to try to get rid of me,” she whispers to Danni.
“I can feel Gary’s patience wearing thin. I’m sort of stuck in no man’s land. It’s a real head f*ck. A part of me feels like I’m fighting a losing battle,” Emma tells the cameras.
Later, Emma struggles with getting the stern line off the tender and it’s not good that Glenn notices. He asks Gary to help her out and his patience is wearing thin.
Emma Crouch can’t handle the truth
After the guests leave, Gary has a chat with Glenn. He reiterates that Emma lacks experience and is just not showing initiative.
“I’ve noticed it. I’m trying to show her stuff too but it’s not getting through,” Glenn agrees. “She’s struggling tying knots — basic knots.” He tells Gary that he’s already finding a replacement and asks him to get Emma.
When Emma walks in, she can’t even look at Glenn. He tells her in the nicest way possible that she’s just not fit for the job. “I’m going to have to let you go,” he says.
Emma immediately starts crying and says, “I can’t. I’m not going to embarrass myself.” She can’t finish the conversation and gets up to leave. Glenn tries to get her to stay but she walks out in tears.
Daisy tries to give her a pep talk and just listen to what Glenn has to say but Emma is just too overwhelmed at the moment. “I just feel like I’ve been the scapegoat.”
After a smoke break, Emma finally has the courage to face Glenn. If anyone has to be fired, they should be grateful if it’s from Glenn because he’s the nicest captain ever. He tells her that she just doesn’t have the experience yet but still has potential, which may or may not be true.
Emma packs up and leaves and says goodbye to everyone except for Gary (and Keith because he’s sleeping).
Gary King spirals over his guilt
It’s time for the crew to go out and let loose. Gary feels guilty over Emma’s firing and is sulking by himself. During dinner, he leaves the table and goes to the bar for a shot of tequila. It’s apparent that just going to drink his sorrows away.
Daisy knows him well enough to see that he’s spiraling. Over ciggies outside, she asks him if he’s okay. “I feel like I could have maybe been a better teacher and a better leader,” he tells her.
“You can only manage somebody who wants to be managed,” she replies. He says, “Deep down inside, I know it’s the right choice that we did that because it was f*cking hard.”
“I don’t think you and Glenn made the wrong decision,” Daisy tells him. “Stop being so hard on yourself.” He tells her that he’ll maybe be okay and after 10 or 20 drinks, he perks up.
Back at the boat, Gary and Davide Morosi clown around and throw lollipops at each other. After going back and forth, Gary chucks one really good at Davide’s face. The chief engineer is laughing but when he looks up, blood is pouring out of his face.
It’s all fun and games until someone bleeds all over the white sofa on a luxury yacht and Glenn is not going to be happy tomorrow.
